Crumby's Telescope Tomfoolery Notes

Sometimes it takes longer to find the virtual stars on the star charts than it does to find the actual stars in the heavens. So I fiddle farted around trying to find all the ones I wanted to look at in Draco again, but I couldn't remember the virtual location of 40/41 Draconis. By the time I had all the ones I wanted to look at pinked out on my homemade Draconis map and got all set up, the clouds rolled in. But one double star I did get to look at was Gamma Delphini in the Constellation Delphinius (littler blue over little gold stars, sort of a miniature Albireo, but much tighter). It'a an easy split at 1335mm/16mm. The Constellation, Delphinius, too funny! I have only known there was a Constellation Delphinius for about a week and tonight was the first time I looked at it. I can easily see all the major stars of Delphinius at the same time in my 9x60 finder scope so it seems more like an open cluster than a constellation. It's a nice little constellation and easy to find, though largely invisible to the naked eye plus spectacles. Just look for star smudge down and to the left of Altair.


The spell Delphinius reminds me of the spell Delphinium which was the name of the head ape on Icky Twerp's Slam Bang Theatre, also too funny! TV was worth watching in those days. Yikes! I should have checked out that little double near Beta Delphi too. Also I left my Rigel on for 24 hours. I got to quit doing that. Jeez Louise. Those batteries cost like three bucks.